This is what is often called a “tragedy of the commons.” Each dairy farmer has an incentive to add more cows to his herd, because he obtains the benefits of the additional cows while suffering only a fraction of the costs; but collectively too many cows will eventually ruin the pasture. Dairy farmers need to find some way to avert this tragedy. Similar problems plague the fishing industry, and they help to explain air pollution and climate change, with the latter sometimes described as a “wicked” commons problem because of the gravity of the threat and the sheer number of people and nations
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